Engenuity, with over 25 years of composite expertise, also reputable for the comprehensive understanding of material and outstanding capability of engineering services, has officially signed the acquisition agreement with HRC- leading composite solution provider in Asia. The merge which happened in the early August signifies that Engenuity has officially joined the HRC group as its engineering unit, meanwhile continue to operate as an independent company to further exploring both Chinese and International market.

As said by Mr. Graham Barnes, co-founder and commercial director of Engenuity, that “Automotive BIW design has reached a point where metals alone cannot deliver improved structural performance and lightweight solutions.” During the early stage of investigation, there has been a voice of strong market demand. With great pleasure, Engenuity will bring its expertise and experience to help Chinese OEM, especially NEV and their project development.

Engenuity joining HRC Group, witnessed by the management team in London, UK, early Aug, 2018

As said by Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, “Engineering is magic, or at least the closest thing to magic that exists in the real world”, the name of Engenuity comes from "Engineering" and "Ingenuity", implying the subtlety of engineering and the beauty of design. As said by Mr. Ian Coles, the CTO of Engenuity, “Good design and precise engineering is the beginning of a good industrial product, especially in composite. Therefore, our work can be called fundamental."

With wealthy experience in composite analysis and product development, Engenuity offers a full range of service, including material screening and development, comprehensive test and characterisation, FEA material model verification, failure model development, aligned and random, TP & TS matrix systems and cure distortion characterisation. Services are provided for top-level racing events such as F1, 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as globally well-known automakers such as Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan and many other famous OEMs. According to market research, Engenuity occupies considerable global market share in composite calibration. It can be said that Engenuity acts the best in commercial practice and applications.

Confidence with composite is one of the philosophy Engenuity has been promoting. Since its foundation, Engenuity has been acting as an expert in advising, guiding and helping customers’ needs, thus to achieve the best engineering results, reduce the risk of product development, and ultimately achieve the goal of saving development and production costs, improving product performance and reducing costs in the long term.

Engenuity provides distinguished services to target groups in different segments of the automotive industry chain. For Composite Molders, when composite materials are molded the fibers, matrix and molds react differently to temperature and the cure process and inevitably lead to some distortion and locked in stresses. Engenuity’s collaboration with the world’s leader in predicting cure distortion allows for materials to be characterized and the components to be assessed to determine whether the distortion and locked in stresses are within acceptable limits for subsequent assembly and usage or whether further development of the lay-ups or the tool geometry are required to bring the parameters into control.

Material manufacturers can also benefit from creative solutions for the high volume composite market. Utilizing Engenuity’s impact test laboratory and innovative test methods to evaluate materials in the demanding automotive operational environments. Engenuity has developed capabilities to predict and develop material systems using random material architectures such as C-SMC, which allied to their low cost and low scrap will drive a significant proportion of the utilization of materials in the future.

Weight reduction, improved performances and more competitive cost is the three major promises that Engenuity has given to the OEMs, which also corresponds well to the vision HRC has always been pursuing- Beyond lightweight. OEMs will be helped in terms of component and BIW development including structural composites for lightweight and improved safety. Advanced finite element analysis (FEA) and Material Test and Characterization and Methods Development to assist OEMs upskill to be able to independently develop composite vehicle structures. From the development of thermoset or over-molded thermoplastic patch panels to enhance a steel or aluminum design through to composite intensive NEV body structures, Engenuity has the necessary experience to support the OEM in the transition to incorporating composites to deliver real benefits.

It is noteworthy that information security has always been the first priority of Engenuity in business conduct. Technical and critical business information from existing clients and projects as well as the new projects will remain independent and isolated from HRC’s access, so as to ensure the business security of different customers.

The application of composite materials will play a key role in promoting the lightweight of automobiles. As the trend goes, staying alert and focusing on creating good product itself will become inevitable for OEM. Good design and engineering work for composite material in advance, which is scarce so far, will appear to be critical for OEM. After Engenuity officially joined HRC, the missing puzzle of composite mass application in automotive has been found, and the strategic layout of HRC has been completed for this period.

The global automotive market has shown a steady growth recent years. It is estimated that the global vehicle production will exceed 100 million by 2020, and the vehicles in possession will reach 1.447 billion. The world is paying more and more attention to resource consumption and pollutant emission, and measures have been taken to control vehicle emissions. And lightweight is one of the most effective way to reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.

To achieve energy saving and emission reduction, vehicle safety, reliability, acceleration performance, and sensitivity, it has become the mainstream trend to adopt high performance carbon fiber composites to replace traditional metal materials. More and more World-renowned auto companies have cooperated with OEMS to develop customized automotive carbon fiber products.

As to China, during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, it has been strengthening of the material system and seeking solution of major scientific issues in material design and structure control. Thus to achieve breakthroughs in the key application technologies and drive composite industrialization to large-scale. However as to composite automotive applications, there always has been a lack of leading enterprises, especially outstanding engineering and design companies. Most carbon fiber enterprises somehow are still conservative and reluctant in investing huge in material innovation, design improvement, also lack practical experience and professional guidance, which seriously restricts the development of industrial-level composite applications in China.

As said by Mr. Jordi Aranega, Vice President of HRC, also the new CEO of Engenuity, “The one and only mission of HRC has always been providing utmost reasonable and dedicate composite solution to our client and all our activities are motived based on this objective. That's why we build ACTC together with Fraunhofer ICT, also why we bring Engenuity to China after long term of communication and understanding each other's business model. We try to connect through every segment for realizing industrial application of composite from material selection to the engineering and analysis in the final component and prototype verification. And we are glad that every step has been solid so far. “

For Engenuity, entering China market, on one hand, verifies the rise of Chinese auto industry, especially the new energy vehicles which is in full swing development, on the other hand, the acquisition is a natural result come through the agreement with HRC’s big vision for composite application, Mr. Graham. Barnes says: “As a leading composite engineering company, working with HRC to develop the world’s largest advanced automotive manufacturing market is an opportunity that could not be overlooked”. Together with Engenuity, HRC is fully prepared for the next automotive material era.